Analysis Of St. Dickens's 'Crime And Punishment'

Although Raymond Williams speaks this quote about Dickens’ portrayal of London, his words can easily be applied to St. Petersburg, whose literary tradition is inseparable from the city itself. “The Petersburg Text,” comprised of various 19th century works of Russian literature, promoted the vision and history surrounding the city. This collection of works, including “The Bronze Horseman” and “Crime and Punishment,” demonstrate the nuances of a place inextricably liked both to the lives of ordinary citizens and the future of Russia itself. Crime and Punishment relies heavily on the atmosphere of St. Petersburg to evoke its themes of poverty, isolation, and immorality. Critic I.F.I Evnin deems it “the first great Russian novel in which
Raskolnikov’s disheveled appearance and confused conscious also mirror the room’s state of disarray. The narrator writes, “It was a tiny little cubby-hole of a place, no more than six paces long, and so low that anybody of even a little more than average height felt uncomfortable in it, fearful that at any moment he might bump his head against the ceiling. The yellowish dusty wall-paper peeling off the walls gave it a wretchedly shabby appearance” (23). Raskolnikov’s room is difficult to envision; it is supposedly six paces long yet it contains a large sofa that takes up almost the entire space as well as three chairs and two tables. Additionally, several people often occupy the room at once. Perhaps this unrealistic description speaks to Raskolnikov’s distorted perceptions of people and events in his life. The room also conveys how negatively the concept of “home” is portrayed in Crime and Punishment. While St. Petersburg is typically regarded as a “window to the West” and a place of great promise, the city is actually a source of great disappointment for many of the characters. Svidrigailov notes,"there are few places which exercise such strange, harsh, and sombre influences on the human spirit as St. Petersburg" (394). Landlords and landladies are
He disregards social conventions, believes himself to be superior to the rest of society, and, in an act of misogynistic violence, asserts his physical authority over Alyona despite the fact that he is economically powerless. Scholar David Pattersen describes the superfluous man as “homeless”- “a paradigm of a person who has lost a point, a place, a presence in life" (2). Much like superfluous characters such as Pechorin and Eugene Onegin, Raskolnikov is unconventional, cynical, ineffectual, and prideful. Additionally, he often displays contradictory thoughts and vacillates between a rational and irrational mindset. For example, he is initially outraged at his sister’s marriage, but later tells her to marry whoever she